


Anger

by aravenwood



Series: Febuwhump '19 [13]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Bruce Banner Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, References to Depression, Science Bros, Self-Hatred, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 15:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17769314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aravenwood/pseuds/aravenwood
Summary: “My secret? I’m always angry.” Bruce wasn't wrong, but what Tony didn't realise was just who that anger was directed at.Written for the prompt "anger".





	Anger

**Author's Note:**

> I think this might be the least organised I've been this month so far. I started off today with such high hopes - do all this uni work and then write some more fills for some of the other prompts. But it's just gone 7pm here and I just finished writing this one after spending half the day doing pretty much nothing. Why do I even try to be productive? Productivity is a myth.
> 
> But enjoy this thing that isn't a myth because it exists. The story that is, not the characters... *sob*

_“My secret? I’m always angry.”_

When he’d first heard Bruce utter those lines, Tony had thought it was an exaggeration. A joke, maybe, a sly little comment meant to break the tension and reassure everyone that he knew what he was doing. That the Other Guy knew what he was doing. But that was all. There was nothing about Bruce which said that he even knew _how_ to be angry, with his meditation and his general pothead persona. He just didn’t seem like the kind of guy who was capable of getting angry.

But then, with the two of them spending more time together in the lab or over meals or in their free time, Tony started to notice things about Bruce.

The way he would tense up whenever anything went wrong.

The way he flinched at loud noises and mysteriously disappeared whenever there was an argument between team members.

The look he got in his eye when something went wrong – a look of such overwhelming self-hatred that it made Tony sick to his stomach, because the look only appeared when whatever had happened was a genuine accident which no one could have foreseen. When there was no one at fault, Bruce seemed to blame himself.

And that was something Tony couldn’t allow. Not in a man like Bruce, who tried so hard to help people while he was falling apart on the inside. It just didn’t sit right. Bruce didn’t deserve to hate himself, and he wouldn’t, not if Tony had anything to do with it.

But Bruce wasn’t a machine. He wasn’t like Dum-E where a little tinkering here and there could fix whatever was wrong – with Bruce it was so much more complicated. Tony couldn’t just snap his fingers and Bruce would be happy, people didn’t work like that. And it wasn’t like he could just turn around and say “hey, I think you should see a therapist because I think you might be depressed.” Firstly because pot-kettle, and also because the two of them just didn’t do that sort of thing.

So instead, he tried to be subtle. He spent more time with Bruce when the look in his eye was particularly overwhelming, cracked more jokes in an attempt to make it go away. Sometimes it worked, and the self-loathing vanished in favour of a bright spark of amusement and an even brighter smile. On the days that Tony could make that happen, he found that he could sleep easier knowing he had made Bruce happy.

When it didn’t work, he still tried to stay close to Bruce throughout the day. He found a reason to be working at a station right next to the other man and kept up a constant string of conversation to make sure that Bruce didn’t get stuck with his thoughts. He insisted on taking a break for lunch and stretched it out as far as possible, still talking about everything and nothing and treating Bruce’s short grunts like full-blown responses which required long, drawn out arguments. And Bruce never complained. He barely said anything on those days.

And maybe it was just Tony’s imagination, but it seemed like the worst periods didn’t last as long now that Tony had started trying. The nervousness lasted a day less than it had, and the smiles that followed were a little less forced. He hadn’t fixed Bruce – and Bruce didn’t need fixing, he wasn’t broken but just a little…out of sorts – but he had made sure that his friend knew that he wasn’t alone, that he didn’t have to deal with anything by himself.

And it seemed that Bruce was starting to understand.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
